Monday, September 03, 2007

My newest article for Suicide Girls is up. As I mentioned earlier, they've switched me to Mondays rather than Saturdays and I'm now bi-weekly instead of weekly. So if anyone asks if I'm bi, I guess I can say yes now. I'm bi- - - - weekly! This is my first Monday entry. Enjoy. I'd much prefer you post your comments about it on Suicide Girls rather than here.

Well, all of this is quite sobering--you sure you didn't take the book of articles about the current occupation of Iraq with you on the plane?

When it comes to competing--in the game of survival--there is no apology for the stronger taking out the weaker, but ultimately, who gets to stay at the evolutionary party the longest, is whomever gets to balance their existence with all others, under all the curveball circumstances that get thrown.

Thank you for your strong and wonderful SG article.

IT SHHTINKS these changes in job and housing. Take good care of yourself.If there's anything any one of us can do to help--put it out there--we'll do our best to oblige--cowpie

The problems the United States really faces have little to do with a bunch of Islamic fanatics living in caves. The people who tell you they are a grave threat are lying and cheating you. The Muslims I have met through my interest in homeopathy are all fine people. I'd compare them favorably to the Buddhists I know, Thy do not threaten your right to practice Buddhism in any conceivable way.

This nation needs a military but the current size of our miltary greatly exceeds what we need for our own self defense. It has a created a powerful lobby to justify its own existence and keep the American people living in fear, Don't buy into it. Whatever problem Islamic fanaticism presents does not have a military solution and is best addressed through coordinated international police work. This is the only way terrorism has been successfully combatted in the past. I'll praise the honorable soldier, but there's no doubt that the American military is a cancer on our society, threatening the democratic principles it was founded on. I'll conclude with the H. H. Karmapa's comments on the current war:

Question: Is there a need for this war?

His Holiness: In general, wars inflict great harm on people. While an individual country may reap economic benefits, basically, wars create tremendous fear and defeat the deep wish for well-being and peace that all living beings have.

Question: Will any good come of the war?

His Holiness: War plants the seeds of hatred and revenge. Temporarily, there might be benefits for some people, but in the long term, war creates within individuals a state of mind that is unsettled and unhappy. In brief, fighting wars brings harm to humans, to the planet, and to all the living beings who together inhabit this earth. For all these reasons, war should be avoided and peace should be sought.

My thoughts on this are little things make a big difference, which is some of what Brad said at the ID project. During the course of a day we do little things to harm other people and they add up, on the massive scale of societies that creates war, hostilities, oppression and other bad things. The best course of action is to purify your own life, seeking to do as little harm as possible and as much good wherever you can.

Just as the bad things add up to great bad things, the good things add up to big positives. I think the fact that many people today are able to make friends with people from distant cultures makes wars less likely. It makes even harsh regimes like China a little bit less eager to look bad. Even in Tibet, China has invested billions to try to improve things because they want to show up the Dali Lama. While that wouldn't be as great as if they just up and ended all the oppression, it's a lot better than if no one cared at all.

On the personal scale many of the soldiers in Iraq are probably doing things that are on net good. The individual soldier is probably more of a positive influence than the clowns we have running the show. I would say to a Buddhist who is in the armed forces they should use their position to try to be positive for both the people of Iraq they encounter as well as their fellow soldiers. That would probably be a better thing than going AWOL or telling people they cannot be both Buddhists and members of the armed forces.

There are limits of course. I don't think a Buddhist can or should torture anyone nor violate human rights. Such things do happen in war, though, so if nothing else a Buddhist should help his peers resist the temptation to such things if he can.

On the larger subject of violence, isn't there a story about Buddha seeing a farmer plow a field and seeing a worm that had been cut in half? Even being a vegetarian doesn't mean that your life isn't harming the life of anyone or anything else. The best reconciliation of this unavoidable fact I've found is to try to be grateful for the opportunity you have to live as a human being and to understand you have a responsibility to make the most of it since you're starting out in a position of causing harm to other things. Since they must give their lives to you, you should do something more than just watch TV all day and play on the internet.

"our ability to walk down the streets of Akron, Ohio in 1982 in our green Mohawks and leather jackets was largely underwritten by the threat of violence by the cops against the many rednecks in the area"

An amazing insight. I wish more "counter culture" types would understand it.

Likewise, American vegetarianism is enabled (in the Freudian sense) by a strong corporate economy.

I'm Buddhist, and I'm a Soldier. I joined out of Compassion for my fellow Americans. That's you guys, even the anonymous 9/11-IJ freak(s). And for the Soldiers that will be coming home and driving down the road toward me for the next 50 years, and shopping for produce near me, etc. Remember those guys. They need your love now, and later. Not your resentment, immature comments, or fear.

The war-crimes commited in Mahmudia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmudiyah_killings made me sick. I wondered where those boys' leaders were, and decided I could do my one life's worth of doing things well, not badly. I didn't make this war, but if I have to go over, I'll make sure MY guys are fighting for good, not evil, as much as I can.

Many Americans, left and right, are calling for the immediate removal of troops from Iraq, without any sense of history, or politics, or even common sense. Bush may have started a stupid war for stupid reasons, but now we're the cops-on-the-beat in Iraq. If we leave now, Shiites will still be shooting at Sunnis and also at other Shiites.

"Give peace a chance" doesn't mean jack shit for the jihadists stirring up ancient hatred in the desert. If we just up and leave, will your Compassionate heart weep for the dying Iraqis?

If we have decided that the distinction between defensive and aggressive violence is irrelevant, then then concepts such as "freedoms" and "liberal democracy" are also irrelevant. Yes, it's true that our freedom and peace are underwritten by violence, but, more specifically, they are underwritten by defensive violence used in response to aggressive violence.

The American Government effed up the war, and the initial recovery efforts. I won't argue with that.

The Iraqis were helped with an election. That would be like me helping you with, say, and engine rebuild, or an major home remodeling project or some such thing you have maybe read about but never done. Are you gonna do it right, and get a 5-star bathrooom, or a hot-rod engine out of the deal? Or are you gonna get yourself something that mostly works with a minimum of leaks and breakdowns?

Man, Brad, between the Porno Buddhist saga and this you seem bound and determined to piss off every single buddhist in the US. That said, I thought it was a good article, and very true. That does not justify every war we are in, but despite the opinions of alot of far leftists, several of our recent wars were fought for the promary purpose of defending our rights or one of our allies rights. And without that protection, we'd all be practicing some screwed up cultist version of Islam or racial pure Christianity.

To the 9/11 "freaks":What would it take to convinceyou that you were wrong andthat 19 guys from Saudi Arabiareally did cause buildingsto collapse with theirhijacked airplanes?

To the 9/11 "schmucks":What would it take to convinceyou that you were wrong andthat an amazingly successfuland elaborate hoax was perpetratedby blowing up buildings withpre-planted explosives et cetera?

To convince me 9/11 was a incredibly elaborate hoax= Produce perpetrators of said hoax. Or. Give me hard details of the mechanics of the hoax + Produce peer reviewed studies demonstrating the differences found in the site from what would be expected given the numerous other studies and reports supporting the conventional explanation.Provide hard evidence accounting Al Quedas role in the attacks or lack there of.Provide an explaination for why the bipartisan 9/11 fell in line behind the neocon conspirators.That'd be a good start anyway.

I know you'd rather these comments be put up over there than over here, but I haven't joined SG, so the comments go here.

I hope this latest SG article is the tip of the spear, so to speak. I'd like to hear you say more along those same lines. You'll hear howls of protest because you're pointing out a painful truth, painful to some anyway. Now I'd like you to explore more of the ramifications.

Kudos on a very good, very well-written article. I hope it gets some thoughtful consideration and doesn't get drowned out by emotional responses and personal attacks against you.

"To the 9/11 "schmucks":What would it take to convinceyou that you were wrong andthat an amazingly successfuland elaborate hoax was perpetratedby blowing up buildings withpre-planted explosives et cetera?"

yeah what erg said. when they believe it over at randi.org that'll be good enough for me. if you can convince a sceptic that something is true then that makes a very strong case that it is true because we require things like real evidence rather than paranoid ramblings and trying to force the facts to fit your preconceived notions of what is true.

"Science is the process of crash testing ideas: you ram the idea head-on into a brick wall at 60mph, and knowledge is gained by examining the pieces. If the theory is solid, the pieces are from the wall. Then we build a bigger wall."

the 9/11 conspiracy ideas dont stand up to being being crash tested basically.

Whether 'War' is good or bad, right or wrong, "Buddhist" or "non-Buddhist" is so much horse shit.

The reality of war, as we all know on some level is that it, and everything that flows from it, is a f**king cancerous NIGHTMARE!!! (and I only come from Belfast, where there was a comparatively small, if painfully drawn out and nasty, war).

People in the US might consider asking themselves why their assholes in power see the need to set up these little "Axes of Evil" around which we are dragged and/or are expected to dance; be it a turn in the mosh pit with Al Queda, the Commies, Martians, The French, The Clingons or whatever the 'Boogey Man of The Week' is or will be next.

Yes, in the world as it exists, as we have set it up, the actions of the US military could be seen to be a support for the practice and stability of many. But, the overall world set-up is a fucking very bad, very unfunny joke based on the equation: 'stability' for the suffering, and death, of others; an axis of suffering that will swing our way one moment, but will swing another way just as easily the next.

The US has proved time and time again that it needs an enemy; it needs it for its identity, to support certain industries and interests, dick wipes need it to win presidential elections etc. etc. This is why the US seems to act blindly, improportionately to certain, strategically chosen threats.

Look at the cruel, bullshit status quos that the idiot war mongers have created, and will recreate, in the world. Look at how they benefit from this. See the wheel of death in all its murderous, gory detail. See how we contribute?

Its complexities seems to dictate that mass murder may be a necessity in this world... it is a clever construct in all its intricacies, but it is truly and completely shit news for humanity looked at on balance.

If we tear it down in our minds then maybe that's one more little screw loosened in its mechanisms.

Part of the problem, I think, is agreeing with Brad's opinion requires us to acknowledge we are the same as people we don't like. Like El Busho, or Al Queda. Which I at least don't really like doing or want to do. They are murders and he is short a few chromosomes, and I do see myself as better. Which is full of ego.

you said that you had never found any evidence on randi.org refuting your beliefs. please take the time to read this article. you mentioned debunking 9/11 debunking. that book was written by a philosophy and theology professor. the following refutal of that book is written by an engineer:

As for the latest SG article:Thank you Meester Brad, yet again, for setting it out for us--out there in the open, in plain view.Unembellished, undiluted, adult dosage, full strength. Something to sit with, and ponder deeply.If not me, then who. If not now, then when?

If so, he was a damned poor one. His Gospels seem deeply infused with dualism to me. And blatent theism.

The "hand-me-down Jesus" is first the Buddhism of Bactia being Hellanized by the Greeks and (much later) Romanized by Constantine in the 4th century. I seriously doubt that there was a person we could call "Jesus" (of Zeus). There is certainly no historical evidence to support such a person. The "hand-me-down Jesus person" likely starts with ben Pantera, gets blended with Apollo, crucified Dionysus, and so on.

Byzantium reinvented Jesus after the Greeks and then the Romans finished him off in the 4th century after Byzantium. The first 13 Popes are weak inventions. And the Pope didn't occupy the Vatican (Mythraic Temple) until 1377. Lots of dirty bathwater, not much baby left. Lots of folklore, damn few literate folks in the Levant.

You know, it really doesn't matter, when you get right down to it, which side of the 9/11 fence you fall on. We still must make our way from here--right where we are right now, in this moment directly in front of us--whether we believe it is flat and, or curved: we still must proceed. What if it's both--a breath mint, and a candy?, a particle and a wave? What if it's flat, but infinitely long--what if it's finite, but round--so that, for all purposes the walk forward is never-ending?The way to peace, to harmony, to all of us living together without the need of a bully on our side, without packing a pre-emptive strike capability in our back pocket?In some movies--it's a standoff--both sides with guns drawn, pointing at each other--both sides stepping back, stepping away, turning and going their separate ways.In the movies--it's the military taking down the oversized lizard/monster gone amuck of our misunderstood, reptilian brain stem

This is the mirror looking into the mirror--our reptilian brain stem/response exactly is the military.

What if we were to turn off the cameras, and let ourselves be giving of ourselves: where there are needs, let us trust ourselves to find ways together to respond to them --the obvious made -- well, obvious, in real time.

Yes, a good little Zen practitioner would not presume to know where hell is or if there was one. At any rate, therapy doesn't cure hell as we have created it here on Terra Firma. If the person was going to walk on a slug or stick their head in a real fire or something...

How about you Americans let theAmerican troops themselves voteon whether or not they should allgo home or not?

Or are you afraid of democracy?

-- a different anonymous"

Actually, a fascinating question.

First, I presume by the use of "you Americans," that you are not.

Second, troops don't get to "vote" about military matters. It's a hierarchal system. We know that when we sign in. The President of the US is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. As an E-4 I have very little effect on the system. I lead 3 men.

If the vote to go home were given to the Soldiers and Marines, we would probably be surprised how many over there want to stay and "get the job done," meaning bring stability to Iraq. I don't know if it's a majority, I haven't been deployed yet. Ask me in a few years.

Americans are not "afraid of Democracy."

Through much of the Cold War, there was some "fear of democracy" bringing Communists to power in various nations around the world, so the Federal government manipulated people, and elections, and coups, and in many cases brought very bad non-communists to power. But that wasn't the action of "americans," that was the action of a limited number of right-wing politicans.

Don't sum up all Americans with one prejudice. We deserve several.

Left-wingers, generally, acknowledge the mistakes made by our country, and right-wingers generally don't.

And some of us recognize the mistakes but don't get hung-up on them, and hope to move forward.

Brad, I'm not a member of SG, so I am going to have to respond to your post there here, rather than in the comments section after the original post.

Really thought-provoking post, and ultimately, both you and Batchelor are probably right--our freedom to do just about whatever we want in a liberal democracy is underwritten by the threat of violence via the nation state.

Several observations, though:

x. While the nation state preserves our freedoms through the use of defensive violence, as Otto Kerner mentioned earlier in the comments, it so very easily slips into the use of aggressive violence to achieve aims that are not necessarily coterminous with the preservation of freedoms. War is big business, and while big companies are full of ordinary people like you and me, companies have goals and strategies that are more often about profit than whether or not you get to choose to hang out at the zendo or the mosque. And big business pretty frequently employs big bikkies to buy big boys (and girls)... with all of the warping of 'freedom' that entails. I geuess what I'm saying is that violence tends to have its own logic--a gun isn't really made just to look at.

x. The freedoms we're discussing also arise in no small part from at least three centuries' worth of political philosophy and economic thinking. This might go hand in hand with the big bully needed to enforce them, but you can't downplay the intellectual history. In fact, could Buddhism be the perfect counterpart to 21st Century hypercapitalism? http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/2/western.php

x. I'm not quite comfortable with the sleight of hand that equates the small scale/local example of the rednecks wanting to hoe down on the punks, restrained by the cops, to the large scale one of the buddhists being allowed to stare at walls because the Marines keep the nasty jihadists at bay (even if the local example is a telling one). There are ideologies and intellectual positions and a host of other things at play on the global scale.

x. I know you're probably being facetious when you refer to them as such, but are all of the things you've cited as 'socially deviant' really so? Tattooing, homosexuality, religious pluralism--they've all flourished and been considered more mainstream --in some form or another--in other (historical) societies. I am thinking of the Roman Empire for religious pluralism, Ancient Greece as well as various tribal cultures for homosexuality etc.

None of this detracts from the central claim, which is certainly something that 'pacifists' have to come to grips with, just as Orwell said that anti-Imperialists had to come to grips with the Empire that gave them their quality of life.

Well maybe the nice Ohio police protected white boy punks but the not so nice LAPD, NYPD and HBPD did not. Quite the reverse.

The Swiss and many other countries seem to manage to have an army for self defense. We could do that too.

I agree with Jinzang, these people we are killing are not the major threat to us. The many Muslim I have met have been quite reasonable people. Yes there are a few crazy people living in caves willing to die for their beliefs. We could have supported the UN and an international police action. Bush's friends have made millions out of this war, that was the point of it, 911 was a excuse. The CIA trained Al Quada members, they armed Sadam when Iraq was at war with Iran.

As far as I can see the US foreign policy is making me less safe not more. I usually pretend to be Canadian when I travel these days.

I think its important for me as a person committed to right action to oppose this war. My supposed 'right' to have a tattoo is not worth anyones life. Not in my name.

What happened to the Bradbay blog? I was just going to go over there and see what was happening. I also wanted to suggest perhaps making a gift of the whole of them books to a film department/university library.

I know it's hard for me to think about things being so much up in the air for you right now.Job change was one thing, but changing apartments portends possible larger changes ahead. I know for me the thought process runs in the direction of "well....I might as well find a place close to where I'll be working....and if I'm looking for a job and looking for a place to live I might as well throw the whole thing wide open and look for a new city/new planet/new galaxy while I'm at it." BRAD!!! Good luck with all of it!Did someone snap up all your treasured books? Was there knock down drag out fighting over some of the cherished copies?Please don't be upset if there was limited response...it's not 'cause we don't care...it's cause we're in shock...and we want to/don't want to know what's next? KEEP US POSTED

One of my best friends is a Muslim from Morocco. He recently became a u.s. citizen after living here for 11 years. He will tell you he is against violence, but if you push him long enough he will admit the tenets of his religion are to ultimately do away of everyone that does not follow Islam. As peaceful as he can be, I wonder how other Muslims will react in the future. Defense is a natural human/animal instinct, and Buddhism is about doing the right thing at the right time. God bless Ted Nugent and Johnny Ramone.

How do you set up a free suicide girls account? I am told it is possible. If I pay my wife will surely mock me, but commenting here will just enrage brad and ensure I spend my next life as cole slaw. I hate cole slaw!

The Stephen Batchelor article seemed quite clear to me, but there are a couple of things I don't quite follow in yours.

In taking issue with the "peace movement", you write:

"The very same force that makes violence an unavoidable part of human life is the one that tries, through a different kind of violence, to overcome violence."

How is this consistent with the premise that appropriate actions are sometimes violent? Are you saying that speaking up against your government's conduct constitutes the wrong kind of violence, one that can never be appropriate?

You also write:

"The only way to do this is to truly understand who we are and to allow that understanding to spread gradually throughout the world. As Buddhists it may not be necessary for we, ourselves, to go out and participate in the violence perpetrated to protect our right to practice -- though there is certainly nothing at all wrong with being a practicing Buddhist and member of the military. But it also does not benefit our practice to stand in the way of the necessary steps being taken to uphold our right to practice."

From the context of the rest of the article I take it the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq were necessary steps. Can you explain why?

Thanks. And, as this is my first time to post a comment, thanks too for your Buddhist writings.hendrik

both peace and love occur only occasionally. the same with war and hate. we do what we can with our lives to keep our emotions in check. but we can't become paralyzed by the idea that peace can exist without war.. because it never has for very long.

I thought the best point of the article was the bit about being protected from rednecks by the cops. That's always nice in a free society but that is not violence exactly. If your punk buddy gets pummeled the cops generally do not come by in force with night sticks and beat the rednecks to a bloody pulp and then leave, they are arrested hopefully with due process. And they certainly would not track down the rednecks wives and children, pull them out of bed and beat them to death as well.

I was at an air show a few weeks ago and those jets thundering over scared the crap out of me and they were just putting on a show. Imagine a dozen or more flying over droping huge bombs? I do not particularly feel safer giving more people reason to hate my culture. Take care of those responsible and right the wrongs YOU are doing personally to cause it (if any).

Muslims or anyone else may have a skewed view but they still want peace. Kim Jong il is a tyrant but still wants peace which is best for him. The leader of Iran wrote bush a 20 page personal letter which was ignored. Instead of opening dipolomatic relations they talk about invading Iran.

Japanese buddhists have also had their justifications for war when they got swept away with what their culture was doing, Batchelor wrote that article after September 11th and war that followed was a disaster.

If find it a bit funny how if we wanted to have our western values undistured we would rather bomb foriegn countries than simply stop imigration from countries that didn't have the same langue and values. That is the only way anyone is gonna be swallowed up by Islam. Not politically correct I guess.